There's a potentially good supernatural cop show to be made, and certain pieces in place to make this into that. But the version you'll see on NBC tonight seems to be embracing the show's likely failure by being something few will miss if it doesn't work out.

The Firm at this point doesn't offer much on its own.

The combination of the characters and the style made the whole shebang much easier for me to take than the movie. Still, I didn't feel any need to watch later episodes.

My problem with the film is that it's all surface.

It's not bad so much as tired: sexual tension between doctors, mysterious ailments that are diagnosed at the last possible second, even the hoary old cliché about the patient who needs life-saving surgery that their religious beliefs forbid.

The Newsroom is convincing as a faux newscast. It's less convincing as good television.

Anger Management is Charlie Sheen doing what Charlie Sheen does-- on-screen. It's not artful, it's not elegant.

For this show to work long-term, its human characters have to become richer--and funnier--so that they can evolve with the audience long post the point where the writers have run out of tricks that Crystal and her various winged or four-legged co-stars can do.

Though Esposito and Burke are both excellent--and Kripke and Favreau stage a classic swashbuckling swordfight for Miles that's easily the highlight of the first hour--far too much time is spent on the boring (Charlie) or annoying (Danny) teenagers.

There's no character you haven't seen before. More importantly, there's no character that hasn't been done much, much better elsewhere.

Even with all the changes in front of and behind the camera, Smash is fundamentally the same show with the same problems.

The problem is that Zero Hour is either unwilling or unable to be that crazy all the time.

The characters don't feel any richer here than they do on CBS' various cop shows, and the series doesn't even commit to how much it wants to keep you guessing about why the crime occurred.

Overall, though, Jon Benjamin Has a Van isn't the next obvious step for Benjamin conquering TV comedy. It's a misfire that mainly made me sad we won't have full new seasons of either "Archer" or "Bob's Burgers" until 2012.

The Protector might be worse if it were attempting to do something ambitious and failing. Instead, it's set the bar near the ground, but I guess some viewers will be satisfied to see it succeed.

True Blood returns on Sunday (June 26) night with too many new characters, not enough time with the characters I like, a general evasion of the most prickly parts of last season's finale, some plodding hints at a lumbering dramatic direction for this season and some breasts.

Barring a significant step up in quality--or at least the self-awareness to stop taking its silly plot and characters so seriously--those people [Gen X'ers who loved "Buffy"] will only be watching out of loyalty to a part that Gellar played a long time ago, on two different networks that no longer exist, and not because she's presently doing work that merits that kind of devotion.

Although there aren't any Carrie Bradshaw-esque puns on this show, nor ethnic stereotypes, the comedy feels more frantic and desperate.

On top of having a dated premise, it just feels tired.

At this stage, Man Up! (which was actually created by co-star Chris Moynihan) is a show with forgettable characters, jokes that don't land and a shaky grasp at best on its own premise.

Beyond the problems of time and memory, there's the way that Innocent feels trashy, overwrought and disposable.

When you spend all your time and energy explaining how the trick works, there's precious little left to entertain the audience.

It's just a collection of creepy imagery, lots of screaming and the occasional musical number for Anika Noni Rose.

It's lame and tin-eared.

As a narrative achievement, though, Magic City is a mess, filled with paper-thin characters and clichéd dialogue and storylines. If not for the appealing lead performance by Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Ike, large stretches of the series would be unwatchable, even with all the lovely visuals.

Even with the couples counseling gimmick, Common Law is ultimately too much like every other traditional cop show you've ever seen, even as it's also too much like every other USA show you've ever seen.

None of Men at Work is funny, but the greater sin is how uninspired it feels.

Baby Daddy has no real point of view, no real comedic voice and one very cute infant.